Last week I wrote about finding a new rhythm for weeknight meals now that my husband and I have our first child. In response, a few people (who may or may not be psychic) wrote in the comments section that they like to whip up big batches of things like rice, beans and simply cooked vegetables each weekend, and then incorporate these staples into various different dishes throughout the week. Little did they know that was the very topic I'd planned to tackle for my next column.
I’ve always loved the idea of cooking ahead for the week, although I haven't necessarily been great at it in practice. Having a baby has now made it a vital part of the eating well equation. I’ve found that by making just two or three simple things over the weekend, I’m able to coast through much of the week, dipping into our pantry and freezer here and there and supplementing with produce from the farmers market.
Here’s what I made two weekends ago, and how it carried us through last week:
Saturday: I roasted two small chickens using just salt, pepper and olive oil. I also cooked a pound of semi-pearled farro and made this lemon vinaigrette, which has been my default salad dressing lately -- the whole thing took me about an hour, and we had a delicious dinner of roast chicken, farro sautéed with shallots and olive oil, and a big green salad.
Sunday: In the morning, I plucked the leftover chicken from the bones and threw the carcasses into a big pot with a few carrots and half an onion; I simmered this for most of the day, adding more water as it cooked, to make a simple, rich stock. I cooled the stock, put it in the fridge, and we met Jonathan's aunt for an early dinner at our favorite Argentinian steak place in Jackson Heights.
Monday: For dinner, we had leftover steak with chimichurri (you can make your own using this great recipe), farro moistened with some of the chicken stock, and steamed haricots verts drizzled with a little more chimichurri.
Tuesday: Dinner this evening was defrosted sweet and sour brisket, with a side of farro risotto that I prepared using some of the homemade chicken stock and made extra creamy by folding in a dollop mascarpone.
Wednesday: Jonathan worked late, so I had a solo dinner of salad and cheese with a cool, crisp glass of rosé. (Jonathan doesn't like cheese, but this meal is pretty much my idea of heaven.)
Thursday: After I had drinks with Amanda and our friend Sarah Shatz, Jonathan and I had a late dinner of leftover chicken and this simple farro salad: 2 cups of cooked farro tossed with 2 tablespoons chopped scallions, 1 tablespoon chopped green olives, 1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped preserved lemon and lemon vinaigrette to taste (watch the video below to see how it's made).
Friday: After a long week and a sudden drop in temperature, I was ready for comfort food in the form of chicken soup: I added sliced carrot and celery to the chicken stock and then cut what was left of the chicken into chunks, adding it to the pot along with the few remaining spoonfuls of farro. A little lemon juice and a few grinds of ground black pepper finished it off. We ate the soup with a baguette retrieved from the freezer and crisped in the oven, slathered with good salted butter.
Farro Salad with Scallions, Green Olives and Preserved Lemon
Now that I've shared my dinner diary for the week, it's your turn! What are your favorite make-ahead staples, and how do you stretch them to last throughout the week?
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A New Way to Dinner, co-authored by Food52's founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, is an indispensable playbook for stress-free meal-planning (hint: cook foundational dishes on the weekend and mix and match ‘em through the week).
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38 Comments
I have a nice three bunches of beets from the farmer's market recipe. Roast the beets and make a dinner/lunch salad with one bunch, topped with cheese (feta or other crumbly). Cook the greens and make a side salad with a carpet of greens topped with chopped beets. Then make a pasta dish with the rest of the greens, stir in half a pound of fresh ricotta and top with salted roasted chopped walnuts. The oven is only on for one hour!
husband won't eat many dairy products (sour cream, yogurt, etc) , nuts, fruit (thus no PB&J), most vegetables, lamb, fish, shellfish (including lobster), eggs, mayonaise, and stuff I can't keep track of. Our meals consist of decisions made at 8 PM at night. I'm sick of bland chicken. I've found a pasta and bean soup, and a Martha Stewart recipe for soba noodles, pork, and spinach soup that we can eat together. Count your blessings...
Throughout the fall, winter, and spring, I've made a pot of stew on the weekend that holds up for two meals, usually Tuesday and Thursday. Beans or lentils, a melange of vegetables, and more often that not, bones- yesterday I used some lamb. Also, lots of warming spices that blends everything together. A crusty bread can't hurt.
Wednesday is the burrito-night, made from slow cooker (batched and frozen), jarred red, or home-made green salsa (easiest recipe in the world), a little frozen corn and spinach, sans shells, over rice.
suit me to a T.
Did I say I love your Feed 52 thank you
(1) This method works infinitely better if you plan for a month at a time rather than a week, thinking through especially what's going into the freezer. For me, it's almost always a portion of a double or triple batch of a recipe such as meatballs or soups, or of a large braised roast. it's easiest for me to work through it in pencil on a printed out single page printed with a blank calendar month. I work out my shopping and advance prep activities on a weekly basis, usually before heading out to my favorite weekly farmers' market.
(2) Notwithstanding #1, remain flexible so you can respond to inspiration, whether that is in the form of a new FOOD52 or other recipe, or drop-dead gorgeous produce coming into season early or otherwise unexpectedly available, etc. Building one or two meals per week around a freezer component facilitates this.
(3) Maintain a strict inventory-in/inventory-out practice with respect to your freezer (or plan periodic catch-up cooking sessions).
(4) Advance prep on the weekends can/should go beyond just double batches of soups, stews, main dishes, etc. Think about what you can do on a smaller scale. E.g., when roasting a chicken, I will often (in winter) also roast a butternut squash, or, throughout the year, put in a baking sheet or two of sliced eggplant, tossed with a touch of olive oil and generously sprinkled with salt. on the lower shelves. (I use Japanese or Indian eggplant, which don't need to be salted.) These I use for eggplant parm (easily assembled in a covered pyrex baking dish and saved for three or four days), and on roti wraps (typically involving leftover meat or meat + sauce removed from the freezer). One of my favorite time savers is to cook up extra onions and garlic and put them in a pint sized Mason jar, to use for starting soups, saag paneer, stroganov-style dishes and similar "over toast" entrees made with leftover meat, etc. Not having to peel and chop onions and garlic on a busy weeknight can make such a difference. I typically do this in conjunction with a dish I'm preparing over the weekend that starts out by sweating onions and garlic. I don't clean out the skillet between projects.
I could go on and on. The key here is to develop a system, be on the lookout for cooked items that can easily be adapted and re-purposed (especially ones that freeze well), and then use the system, religiously. I believe there are some great resources out there, including books published in recent years, on how to do this. These are just a few ideas. ;o)
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